About Me
Friends
Matthew Summers Sparks
Matt is my beer and movie buddy! We meet when we can find a spare moment and search out the best local brews and interesting movies that the E-Street Cinema has to offer. Matt has a wonderful sense of humour and is a very talented writer. He writes full-time, and also for his own pleasure on the side. He is a semi-regular contributor to the Washington City Paper and has also been published in the New York Times. His stories appear in Denver Quarterly, McSweeney's, Humanities, Pindeldyboz, in the third volume of the Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor anthology series, and in Mississippi Review's "2002 Prize Stories" issue.
The Ruffz | Sunshine | Talking Dirty with the Gray Lady
Bradley Avery
Brad is simply a god of all things digital and creative... and actually a number of analog things too! I've often met people who are talented techincally and people who are blessed artistically. Brad is one of the very few with outstanding skills in both. We met when I directed my first film in the Washington DC 48 hour film competition. Brad was director of photography, and his mastery with the camera, lighting and many other aspects of filmmaking helped keep everything running smoothly.
He's one of the friendliest, most kind-hearted people I've met since coming to the U.S. He now lives in San Francisco with his equally fabulous wife, Michelle, as he searches for a way into his dream job at Pixar Studios! Good luck Brad - we'll look for you on the credits of the next Incredibles movie!
Gareth Dunn
You don't often meet people like Gareth. Some may say this is for the better! (just kidding... they don't say that at all... but a few have written it down and shown me). He has a unique outlook on life and living. He has a great sense of fun and is not one to mince his words.
But he's a good lad! He was the best-man at my wedding, and did a sterling job. People to this day still talk highly of his monumental speech - even people that weren't at the wedding.
But we share the same unusual sense of humour. This has proved to be a rare thing - and is our strongest bond! Within minutes of being together one or both us is usually in stiches on the floor over some stupid thing or other. We've known each other for a great many years now and have a large repertoire of in-jokes and oddities which only we seem to find funny. I always enjoy spending time with him.
He now lives in Monmouth, Wales, and rears things that he finds in alleyways for a hobby. He is a physics teacher at a local school and is totally perfect for the job. When I think of him, I am always reminded of Hannibal Lecter's closing words from "Silence of the Lambs" : "The world is a more interesting place with [him] in it"!
The following link has nothing really to do with Gareth, but I thought I had better include one link, as I have for the other entries on this page: